The Most Exciting Latino Art Exhibits Happening in the Second Half of 2018

Latin American and Latino art is finally reaching a nationwide audience in a way it never has before. Back in 2016, Los Angeles Times reported on the 2017 art project, Pacific Standard/ LA:LA, which would bring to life an unprecedented 43 Latin American exhibits funded by the Getty Foundation. Since the success of Pacific Standard, the interest for Latin American art and history is reaching new heights.

Last year, Google Arts & Culture collaborated with dozens of institutions to publish Latino Cultures in the U.S., a public collection of art and exhibits that all people can explore on their own. While there’s still a lot of work to be done, Latino art exhibits are becoming more accessible with these recent milestones leading the way to a promising future in representation of Latino culture in the US.

To celebrate some of the fascinating and inspiring works done by Latin American artists showcasing the Latinx experience in the US, here are some Latino exhibits to check out for the rest of 2018 around the country. Grab some amigxs and get cultured.

Where: The Whitney Museum of American Art, 99 Gansevoort St., New York, New York 10014When: July 13 to September 30Cost: $25 for general admission

This exhibit opening at The Whitney includes three words in the Quechua language, the most spoken Indigenous language in the Americas. Pacha encompasses the universe, time, space, or world; llaqta means place, country, community, or town; and wasichay is to build a house. These rich words together build the foundations of the exhibit, which explores how Indigenous construction has influenced the history of contemporary art and architecture in the Americas.

The show features the work of seven emerging Latinx artists based in the US and Puerto Rico: william cordova, Livia Corona Benjamín, Jorge González, Guadalupe Maravilla, Claudia Peña Salinas, Ronny Quevedo, and Clarissa Tossin.

Activist, designer and photographer León Muñoz Santini is the founder of Gato Negro Ediciones, an independent publishing house based in Mexico City. The published art books are unique and edgy, spanning genres to include art, photography, poetry, political discourse, and more. This exhibit will showcase an installation of prints from their books, images which are inspired by the art and design scene in Mexico City.

Pretty much all the cool kids know about them, so you can check out their vibrant prints and history for yourself as this marks their first museum exhibit in LA!

Where: Museum of Latin American Art, 628 Alamitos Avenue, Long Beach, California, 90802When: August 11 to December 30Cost: $10 for general admission

Judithe Hernandez is one of the founding figures of LA muralism and will become the first Chicana artist with a solo exhibit at MOLAA, something to celebrate in itself. The LA-born and -bred artist was at the front lines of emerging political and civil unrest in the Chicano community. In the ‘70s and ‘80s, she became a member of Los Four, a Chicano art collective that combined their art with political activism. This show will exhibit her colorful recent pastel work, which are an indisputable part of the fabric of L.A.’s past history and future.

Where: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 151 Third Street, San Francisco, California 94103When: September 8 to November 25Cost: $25 for general admission

This exhibit at SFMOMA is focused on Mexico City in 1968, a time of progress, but also rife with political and social turmoil. Mexico City was the first Latin American country to host the Olympic Games and the country turned to cutting edge designers to present them both as contemporary and traditional. Mexico 68 will showcase through images and spaces how all of these pressures came together to create events deeply set in Olympic history, from the infamous Black Power salutes to student protests.

A post shared by New Museum (@newmuseum) on Jun 24, 2018 at 12:39pm PDT

Where: New Museum, 235 Bowery, New York, NY 1002When: September 28 to February 3, 2019Cost: $18 for general admission

Chris E. Vargas is an interdisciplinary artist whose work highlights the queer and transgender experience through visual and material exhibits. He is the founder of The Museum of Transgender Hirstory and Art (MOTHA), a transitory and evolving project making its way to New Museum, in the form as the exploration of the Stonewall Riots. During its time in NYC, the exhibit will reimagine the stories of the 1969 Stonewall Riots and find new ways to explore the lives and truths of the people who were at the forefront of the LGBTQI civil rights movement in the US, including Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, Miss Major, and many more.

For those in Miami that missed the massive Latinx art project in SoCal, Pacific Standard Time: L.A./L.A., it’s now your chance to catch some of the exhibits which has been traveling around the country. Relational Undercurrents is especially significant to the many South Floridians from the island nations of the Caribbean. The exhibit will feature artists from the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Cuba and Puerto Rico examining issues of race, history, colonialism, and the environment and how they are unique to islands as opposed to countries on the continental Latin America.